[Androzani84]

Scroll 30: Idol and Friendship

And here we are, with another Arakawa episode. Let’s see if he can deliver this time (because up to now, he’s been probably the least impressive of the show’s writers. Yes, even compared to Yoshida’s efforts in the last post).

We begin with Furabijo failing Sargain for Megatagame Mk II’s failure, Satarakura for Licker’s failure and Wendinu and Manmarva because she thinks their performances have been lousy (she clearly hasn’t been watching Manmarva’s efforts to kill KabutoRaiger). She then insists she’ll make up for all their failures (again, KabutoRaiger isn’t dying of his own accord) with her own plan, revealing Bishoujo Ninja Furabijennu, a puppet made with her traits, all amplified to 300%. (And the voice of Emi Shinohara, better known as the voice behind Sailor Jupiter)



As Manmarva expresses disgust that Sargain would build such a thing, wondering just what dirt Furabijo has on him, our First Spear sends out Furabijennu to perform the “Greatest Earth Corruption Plan in the Universe” (which, as the narrator points out, isn’t actually explained in any detail). As Furabijennu shows up to a factory, she faces down the Gouraigers and beats them up easily (and Manmarva wasn’t even doing his thing, so she managed to beat both Ikkou and Isshu in a straight fight). The Hurricanegers only show up as she’s finished beating up Shurikenger (which considering this is his one appearance in the episode, is kind of disappointing). But luckily, Furabijo calls Furabijennu back to the Centipede, since she’s used up 75% of her power (what kind of batteries does she use?). As Furabijo has all but Manmarva doing her bidding (he leaves this episode to prepare for the next one), Furabijennu returns and is fitted with a recharger, which will take 2 weeks to repower her (again, what batteries did Sargain use to build this puppet?). The other three then decide they’ve had enough and decide they’d rather have Furabijennu as their First Spear.







And so, by overwhelming majority, Furabijo is voted out in favour of her robot double (there’s an anti-automation message there, somewhere). At Ninja Base, Nanami ducks out of the search to attend a campaign signing (wow, she’s gone up in the world. From doing kindergarten performances to releasing an album). Back at the Centipede, Furabijennu is giving Sargain a sauna treatment (pictured below, in a picture that shows off what kind of computer I use to get these screenshots), Wendinu a massage and Satarakura help with his jokes (What does a mountain made of blankets weigh? A few-tons). She then states internally her desire to get rid of them all and become leader of Jakanja “because my ambitions are 300 times greater than Furabijo’s”. (What’s a good Sentai villain group without backstabbing?)



As Nanami signs autographs (turns out, there’s a large market for Enka songs), Furabijo appears and transforms into a civilian guise to explain her situation. After Hase-san determines that the new girl is a friend of Nana-chan’s, he decides to recruit her as an idol.



Thus, Hase-san proposes putting the two together as an idol unit, known as “Bishoujo Girl 7”. With some persuasion from Hamster Headmaster (who suggests that it’s a good idea to keep an eye on Furabijo), Nanami and Furabijo rehears their debut single “Shiawase Shaking Hands” (which sounds a lot like one of KR Gaim’s transformation sounds), a peppy song about friendship across barriers written specifically for this episode.

After deciding that Furabijo is on the up and up, Nanami speaks with her as a friend. Furabijo reveals that she was kicked out of Space Ninja School for constantly getting zeroes (I’m sensing a Freudian excuse here).



After that, she was inducted into Jakanja because Tau Zant thought she had the perfect look to be the First Dark Spear (Now I’m interested in the backstories of the other Spears. Was Sargain discriminated against due to his small stature? Did Satarakura need an outlet for his bad jokes? These are the things I want to know). And to commemorate her redemption, Nanami takes her into Ninja Base, where she shares with Oboro the plans for a controller that will shut down Furabijennu, who will be fully recharged in two days (They set up this whole campaign in 12 days?). After another montage set to the song (I’m not posting the video again), we cut to the Bishoujo Girls 7 in bed together (Make your own interpretations about that. I prefer to think Nanami is too poor to afford a second bed).



Furabijo is worried about Furabijennu showing up, so she leaves in the middle of the night to grab the completed remote and confront the recharged Furabijennu at Toei’s Edo set (because Arakawa was in a period where he tried to fit it into Sentai once a season. The only reason he didn’t in Go-Onger was because Shou Aikawa beat him to it by making it the setting for the movie), with Yosuke and Kouta watching. After a short fight, Furabijo attaches the remote to Furabijennu… who is reprogrammed to serve her and attacks the onlookers. Furabijo then states that she was merely acting nice in order to fool HurricaneBlue into helping her build the remote and in actuality, she cares about nothing other than suffering, which she demonstrates by tearing the campaign poster in half. Unfortunately for her, Nanami heard everything from Ninja Base and promptly shows up, dressed in a kimono, wielding a sword and a parasol with the Water Ninja crest on them (how did she make the sword brand so quickly? The parasol, she uses for the roll call, but the sword confuses me) and speaking like a Jidai Geki hero (uh, heroine), as her Enka song, “Shinobi Koi” plays in the background (and I’ll share the video again for your consideration).

After Nanami swiftly deals with the Magerappas, she then transforms into HurricaneBlue, with the faceplate retracted (I can see why PR didn’t use much footage from this episode) and engages in a sword duel with Furabijennu, defeating her in one stroke (are the heroes getting stronger, or are the villains getting weaker? You decide).





After some begging, Furabijo gets Wendinu to send a Copy Giant, while the Hurricanegers wake Oboro up to send the Shinobi Machines (with both stock footage clips getting skipped). Oboro then sends Nanami the Shinobi Medal for Karakuri Ball 14: Pitatto Hitode, which Senpuujin uses to kill Furabijennu with the Kyukuku Ougi: Starlight Knee Drop. (Is it just me, or have the Karakuri Ball debuts gotten more anticlimactic since Shurikenger showed up?)





Back at the Centipede, Tau Zant deducts 300 points from Furabijo, much to everyone else’s (except Manmarva) glee. But Furabijo then tries to salvage this by stating she knows where the Hurricanegers’ base is. (Should’ve hit her with the Kuroko-bots before she left for the Centipede)



They then hand Furabijo the missile system and she fires… on the Centipede (I can see why she flunked out of Space Ninja School).



Instead of showing us the aftermath of this, the episode ends with Nanami looking at the torn poster the next day, crying. Next time, a close to death Ikkou fights Yosuke and a trio of werewolf monsters appear. This and more on Scroll 31: Meteor Shower and Three Wolves.

Final thoughts: I thought this was a fairly good episode about not fully trusting everyone and being cautious. Also, Furabijennu is incredibly cuter than she has any right to be (I think it’s the voice) and Nanami has taken the title of second most badass person in this show. (The first is Shurikenger)